I used wired earphones in 2021. It was weird

It's time to admit it — Apple was right all along. The headphone jack has no place on a phone. What's more, folks that have bemoaning its death will certainly stand on the wrong side of history.

Imagine my shock when I came to realize this as soon as a week-long vacation to my parents' had me stranded without my wireless earbuds and I had to resort to a pair of 'old-school' wired EarPods that I happened to find in my old room. Yay, thanks young me for helping, and Lady Luck was extra kind that day as I also happened to have a dongle on me. Sadly, the experience that followed was far from pleasant.

Long story short, the sweet embrace of nostalgia was clearly lacking. Once I was perfectly happy to use just any earphones you could throw at me, but experiencing these old-school accessories as a person that's gotten used to wireless earbuds made a few things rather clear.

First up, the wires. Always dangling around, always prone to getting tangled up like a bowl of fresh pasta, always getting in the way. There's no winning this battle, and I conceded a long time ago. Surely, you don't need to charge those, but it's quite inconvenient.

Secondly, let's talk range. I mean, what range do we even have here? A foot or two of pretty limited movement, perhaps? I am so used to doing daily chores while listening to podcasts away from my phone that the first time I did that with the wired variety plugged was a stark and abrupt reminder that they will not only hurt your ears but also comically pull your phone with you, potentially sending it off to the ground. Surely, Bluetooth sort of 'leashes' you to your device as well, but nowhere nearly as restricting as the headphones of old.

Last, but definitely not least, you can't user wired earphones and charge your phone at the same time. Given that I was using an Exynos-powered Galaxy S20 Ultra back then, you should know that there was a lot of charging involved as Samsung's former flagship treated me to a figuratively abysmal battery life. Thus, it was either charging or using the wired headphones. The whole experience felt odd—after years of using wireless earbuds, going back a notch felt unabashedly counter-intuitive.

"The horror!" some of you might exclaim, and believe me, I'll totally get it if you berate me for being snobbish or arrogant. It's okay, if we were in 2015 I'd probably wholeheartedly agree with anything you would say against my claims. But as a newfangled wireless convert, I fully embrace what the future has in store for us.

Past me would certainly do that as I once held wired accessories to a higher pedestal. Rest assured, when the iPhone 7 ditched the headphone jack, I was happily riding the naysayers' train believing that no one in their right mind will ever accept Apple's crushing blow against my beloved wired earphones. I guess I'm a rather conservative fellow in some regards and I don't react well to sudden changes and disruptions in the established order. I'll admit I'm a former microSD card enthusiast, removable battery enjoyer, and if LED Notification Light Anonymous existed, I'd probably frequent their meetings to this day still.

That's why it took me years to finally part ways with my trusty wired earphones. Admittedly, it was a tough way of life at first — it was initially hard to grasp the finite battery life of the wireless earbuds, especially in contrast with the power-independent function of wired earphones. But now, after years of using AirPods and other trendy earbuds, it's now clear to me that there's no going back to the way things were just a couple of years ago.

The transition from wired to wireless was clearly worth it. Good riddance, wires.